


Long Talks under the Stars

by Jaidan Mosra (Myriai)



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Gen, Mostly Dialogue, Ratings may change, Save Ben Solo, dream talk, finding middle ground, force skype, general rambling dialogue, probably a lot of purple prose
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-10
Updated: 2018-06-29
Packaged: 2019-05-20 09:40:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14892191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Myriai/pseuds/Jaidan%20Mosra
Summary: Seven nights, seven different conversations and interactions between Rey and Ben/Kylo Ren.The sounds of the waves crashing ran over Rey’s raw spirit like a balm and she let her eyes drift closed.  She stretched out with her senses feeling everything on the island of Ahch-To just as if she were sitting on the rocky gray island in the middle of a rolling sea.  She’d realized belatedly that it was the island of Ahch-To that she imagined on all those dark days on Jakku and now when she needed a retreat that’s where her mind went.  Rey danced between the light of the Temple and the deep darkness of the mirrored cavern.  She floated on the strands of the Force that joined it all.Suddenly there was warmth at her back and it only took a moment to identify it.“Where is this?” Kylo Ren asked her.“An old island I saw on a planet once,” Rey replied vaguely—she’d been to a few different places since the Battle of Crait, so it didn’t just have to be the island where his uncle died.  “Peaceful isn’t it?”





	1. Night One

**Author's Note:**

> These sorts of filtered into my head while I was working on a couple related projects (a story about young!Rey and teenage!Padawan Ben and my Ep IX fic)--I don't think they'll actually show up in the stories, but I wouldn't say it absolutely won't. There will be 7 chapters in all--the lengths of the chapters are probably going to vary greatly.
> 
> My stories are all un-beta'd so I apologize if there are minor mistakes that I make, you can feel free to let me know in the comments if you'd like if any of them are too glaring.

The sounds of the waves crashing ran over Rey’s raw spirit like a balm and she let her eyes drift closed.  She stretched out with her senses feeling everything on the island of Ahch-To just as if she were sitting on the rocky gray island in the middle of a rolling sea for real rather than from her cramped quarters on the _Millennium Falcon_.  She’d realized belatedly that it was the island of Ahch-To that she imagined on all those dark days on Jakku and now when she needed a retreat that’s where her mind went.  Rey danced between the light of the Temple and the deep darkness of the mirrored cavern.  She floated on the strands of the Force that joined it all.

 

Suddenly there was warmth at her back and it only took a moment to identify it.

 

“Where is this?” Kylo Ren asked her.

 

“An old island I saw on a planet once,” Rey replied vaguely—she’d been to a few different places since the Battle of Crait, so it didn’t just have to be the island where his uncle died.  “Peaceful isn’t it?”

 

“Yeah,” he agreed.

 

There was a timbre to his voice that made Rey turn her head to look at him, but all she saw was the darkness of the back of his head.  “You don’t often see the stars here do you?” Ben—yes, this was Ben, not the mask of Kylo Ren, Rey could sense it—murmured.

 

“It storms a lot,” Rey agreed.  “I like the rain.”

 

“Of course you would.  It wasn’t something you saw on Jakku,” he said.

 

“Why are you in my dream?” Rey asked.  “I thought we’d shut the bond down.”

 

“Me too,” Ben said.  “Are you upset to see me?”

 

“I’m not sure yet,” she said, “depends on if you’re going to be a moofmilking nerfherder tonight or not.”

 

A chuckle shook his large form.

 

Rey realized again just how physically huge Ben Solo was, it must’ve come from one of his grandparents—neither Leia nor Han had been this tall and broad.  She felt him stiffen and quickly stifled the thoughts of his parents cramming them under layers of other thoughts.  He relaxed marginally and Rey turned her head back to look straight ahead over the reflection of the stars on the water. 

 

“We’re still enemies,” he reminded her.

 

“I know,” Rey replied, “but not tonight—at least for now.  Where are you right now?”

 

“My quarters on the _Finalizer_ ,” he replied.  “Where the _Finalizer_ is, I’ll reveal as soon as you reveal where you are.”

 

“I can’t do that,” Rey said.

 

“I figured as much,” Ben said.  “Why are you letting me stay here in your dream?”

 

“Is it my dream or _our_ dream?” Rey asked softly.

 

“There are no dreams where I’m at, Rey.  Just darkness and nightmares…”

 

“This doesn’t feel like a nightmare to me,” she said.

 

The laugh that followed the statement was humorless.  “I don’t know about that,” he said.  “Try it from my end.  I’m stuck on an island in the middle of nowhere with a girl who rejected me and I don’t have the slightest urge to leave.”

 

“I didn’t reject _you_ ,” Rey said.  “I rejected Kylo Ren.”

 

“We’re the same person,” Ben stated flatly.

 

“No, no you’re not,” Rey murmured.  “He’s a mask even if you don’t wear a physical mask anymore.  It’s like the smile I show to the Resistance when I tell them there’s still something out there.  At this point I wonder if it’s just another castle of dreams and echoes with no foundation.”

 

“I offered you a foundation,” Ben gritted out.  “I asked you to join me.  To build a new order…”

 

“But what kind of order, Ben?” Rey asked softly.

 

“I never said it had to be built in the Dark Side,” Ben pointed out.

 

“Yes, but your goal is to destroy everything that came before,” Rey said.  “You can’t just burn down the past.”

 

“Why not?” Ben demanded.

 

He was stiff at her back and she could feel his anger, fear, and loss pouring out from him in dark, debilitating waves. 

 

“Because destroying the past makes every lesson learned there worthless,” Rey said.

 

“I don’t understand why you won’t let go,” Ben snarled.

 

“If that’s not a Jawa calling an Ewok short, I don’t know what is,” Rey said.

 

“Have you ever even seen a Jawa or an Ewok?” Ben asked, there was amusement tracing through his voice.

 

“In holovids,” Rey said somewhat heatedly as her cheeks burned as he tossed her inexperience at her.

 

There was a long silence as the wind tossed their hair in the dreamscape island.  “There is something that we’re missing,” Rey said.  “Something that neither the Sith nor the Jedi could figure out.”

 

“That’s why they need to be destroyed.”

 

“Is destruction all you ever think about?” Rey asked curiously.  “Have you ever thought of trying to build something instead?”

 

“I wanted you to build a new order with me,” he stated again.

 

“By recklessly destroying everything that came before and pretending they never existed,” Rey said.  “There’s got to be a reconciliation of some sort—a place where you can take the good and the bad from both sides and use them to fill in the gaps left by the others.”

 

“ _Peace is a lie, there is only passion.  
_  
 _Through passion, I gain strength.  
_  
 _Through strength, I gain power.  
_  
 _Through power, I gain victory.  
_  
 _Through victory, my chains are broken.  
_  
 _The Force shall free me._ ”

“That’s the Sith Code, where did you find that?” Ben asked.

 

“The same place I found this:

 

_There is no emotion, there is peace._

_There is no ignorance, there is knowledge._

_There is no passion, there is serenity._

_There is no chaos, there is harmony._

_There is no death, there is the Force_.”

 

She paused after repeating the mantra that made up hours of Ben's days back in his early childhood.

 

“They’re both in the books,” Rey said.

 

Ben stiffened.  “What books?” he asked slowly.

 

“The ones I stole from your uncle when I left him,” Rey said.

 

There was no shame in her voice when she said the words.  “I’m a scavenger.  He wasn’t using them and the purpose of a scavenger is to make things useful again—even if it means putting them together in another machine.”

 

“You left my uncle?” Ben’s voice was startled.

 

“Yes,” she replied.  “I left him to come find you.”

 

“Why?” he asked.

 

“Because he was beyond saving,” Rey said softly.

 

She could feel Ben’s puzzlement.

 

“He’d already given up hope or so I thought. I haven’t and—” she hesitated for a long moment.  “I don’t think you’ve given up entirely yet.”

 

“I’m a monster,” Ben said.  “You’ve said that yourself several times.”

 

“You’ve done monstrous things,” Rey acknowledged, “but you didn’t walk away unscathed.  If you had, the loathing that I feel in you right now wouldn’t exist.”

 

“I—” he began.

 

Rey followed the instinct that guided her not to pounce on the wavering she could feel in Ben.  “I can’t fix you, Ben,” Rey said softly.  “I can only remind you that you’re not alone.  The only one that can fix you is you, but you have to want to fix it.”

 

“Where do I even start, Rey?”

 

Ben’s voice was pleading and Rey settled more firmly into his back.  “I don’t know,” Rey said honestly.  “I’m not sure at which point Ben Solo became Kylo Ren and why.  I’ve heard the stories of the past, I know that there are reasons you felt like this was the only way to go, but did you always feel this way?  Did you always feel like you had no choice but to fall into the Dark Side?”

 

“No, I didn’t want that at the beginning, I tried—Rey, I tried so hard not to fall, but none of them ever believed I would do otherwise,” he said.  “Do you know how hard it is to fight back when everyone else has already given up?”

 

“I haven’t given up on you, Ben,” Rey said softly.  “I don’t think the answer lies in the Dark Side or in the Light Side.  For all Luke collected the knowledge of the past, he never fully grasped it I don’t think.  The Jedi were flawed just like the Sith were flawed, but, like you, Luke just wanted to burn it all down.  He didn’t bother to sit down and figure out _why_ they were flawed or how something could be done to fix it.  If a machine is defective you don’t just put it back together the way it was to begin with, but you don’t destroy it either especially when it can still work if you fix or replace parts.”

 

Soft color flooded the horizon and Rey could feel Ben wavering behind her.  “It must be morning,” Rey said.  “I have to go.


	2. Night Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They meet again, this time in cramped quarters on the Millennium Falcon (Kylo/Ben PoV)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As a note, I can't claim credit for all the wording in some of these conversations. I'm doing a bit of paraphrasing from The Last Jedi novelization (and its Junior Novel counterpart)--I love the insights and depth that these books add to the movie and how things shift as you go through all of them. I'm also randomly pulling lines of dialogue in (both) movies that struck me as significant and working them into it.
> 
> These will likely be posted in alternating PoVs as I write them, so this one is going to be from Kylo/Ben's perspective. In my head Ben Solo thinks of himself as Kylo more than Ben, but from Rey's perspective (unless he's being particularly asshole-ish) he's Ben.

“Weren’t you taught it’s not nice to enter a lady’s room when she’s dressing?”

 

Rey’s voice was amused and Kylo Ren was dumbstruck at the sight of the scavenger’s slender back turned towards him as she was settling on the bed.

 

“I, uh, I didn’t…” he floundered, feeling his cheeks and ears heat with a blush.

 

Rey reached for the gray blanket on the bed beside her and wrapped it around her, turning before she was done allowing Kylo a glimpse at the faint outline of ribs against her skin and a dusky color crowning her small breasts.  He cleared his throat and his eyes darted to the walls.  “This is the _Falcon_.”

 

His voice was almost accusing.

 

“Did you expect something else?” Rey inquired knotting the blanket around her in such a way that she had her arms free, but wasn’t revealing anything else.

 

“You’re not in the captain’s quarters,” he noted lamely.

 

“No, I’m not,” Rey agreed calmly.  “Other people needed them more and I’m used to small spaces.”

 

She pulled a rolling tray towards her and Kylo noted the pieces of metal scattered all over it.  “That’s my light saber,” he said.

 

“Right now it’s a pile of scrap,” Rey said.  “It didn’t stand up to us very well in the throne room.”

 

“What are you doing?” Kylo asked.

 

He moved closer despite himself to look over the pieces.  He noted with surprise that the kyber crystal was broken cleanly in half.

 

“Trying to figure out if there’s a way to repair the crystal,” Rey said.  “Between the Empire and the First Order, new kyber crystals are pretty hard to find.  So I have to make use of what I have.”

 

“You’re scavenging it?”

 

Kylo was somehow mortally offended by the idea that his family legacy was about to be made into something else.

 

“Do you have any other suggestions?” Rey asked shifting and the blanket fell a bit off one slender shoulder.

 

“How can you be so calm?” Kylo burst out.

 

“About what?” Rey inquired.

 

“The fact that you’re…and I’m…” he began.  “You reacted completely differently when you saw me that one time.”

 

“I grew up in a place it wasn’t uncommon to have to catch a bath communally on the rare occasions the opportunity presented itself,” Rey said.  “It’s not a big deal.  I was just caught by surprise when we met that time.”

 

“Are you saying you wouldn’t react the same again?” Kylo asked, he admitted in a deep corner of his mind he was a little disappointed he wouldn’t affect her the same way.

 

“I’m not sure,” Rey replied.  “Right now, probably not."

 

She shoved a few pieces around on the tray and looked up at Kylo.  "If you had this in your hands what would you be doing with it?”

 

“It would already be fixed,” he declared, lifting his chin proudly.

 

“Even the crystal?” Rey asked.

 

Kylo contemplated the crystal.  “Well…” he trailed off.

 

Rey watched him for a long moment.  “Ah, you wouldn’t have to fix it.  You can find a new crystal somewhere in the storage rooms of the First Order…”

 

There was a wistful note in her voice.

 

“Do you want one that badly?” Kylo Ren asked.

 

“Well, a lightsaber would stand up a lot better to that sword of yours than my staff,” Rey said.

 

“Do you think we’re going to fight again?” Kylo inquired.

 

“At this point, probably,” Rey replied.

 

“We don’t have to fight,” Kylo said.  “You could join me and then…”

 

“We’ve already had this discussion, Ben,” Rey said firmly.  “I’m not leaving my friends and joining you.”

 

“What if they weren’t there?” he asked.

 

The air around Rey was charged with a touch of anger and a little fear.  “I won’t let you hurt my friends,” she finally said.  “Until we can find some kind of middle ground we’ll be fighting each other.  I’d just rather have a fair chance.”

 

“Why didn’t you kill me in the throne room?”

 

The question that plagued him since Crait simply rolled off his tongue before he could stop it.

 

Rey’s long, capable fingers slid over the pieces of metal scattered on the try and lingered over the crystal for a long moment before she responded.  “I believe the phrase is ‘we’re not done yet’,” she said and glanced up.

 

Kylo jumped at the words from the forest on Starkiller being thrown at him casually.

 

She looked up at him with intent hazel eyes masked by the same emotions that regarded him over the closing of the boarding ramp of the _Millennium Falcon_.  He couldn’t help but feel a slight chill roll through him at the lack of any emotion in her eyes—she wasn’t hating him, but she wasn’t regarding him the same way she had in the elevator on the way to Snoke’s throne room the eve of the Battle of Crait.  He felt a touch of relief when those eyes dropped back down to what she was working on.

 

“We could’ve been,” Kylo stated.  “Did you feel some sort of _compassion_ for me?”

 

The word was sneered in such a supercilious tone, Kylo couldn’t help but wonder where it had come from or immediately wish he could take the words back.

 

To Rey’s credit she didn’t look up from the pieces on the tray.  “I just knew that there is something left for us to do,” she said finally, there wasn’t even a tremor in her voice.

 

“It will be your destruction,” Kylo declared softly.

 

Rey glanced up at that and cocked her head to the side and Kylo swore he saw a soft smile flicker across her face.  “Or your salvation,” she said.  “The future is a range of possibilities that are constantly reshaped by the outcome of events that seem like they won’t have any bearing on things.  The future I saw for you when we touched is just one of many possibilities.  It’s hard to admit that the futures that seem so clear are the ones that you most hope for—or most fear and so we think those are right.”

 

Kylo’s hand clenched in a fist.  “You’re still holding on,” he said.

 

Rey smiled.  “Yes, I am,” she agreed, “but so are you.  All the power in the galaxies at your fingertips and yet you cannot see what is in front of you here and now.  A little green ghost told me that your uncle was like that.”

 

“You know nothing of my uncle.  You know nothing of me.  That hope you’re holding onto is false!” Kylo raged at her suddenly overwhelmed by emotion.

 

“All hope is,” Rey said.  “Until it comes true.”

 

Before Kylo could retort the connection severed and he was once again alone in his austere quarters on the _Finalizer_ staring at the shining black walls.


	3. Night Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On a nameless planet they meet again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh...yeah, something's going on. Haven't figured it out yet. Next chapter should have answers though...

“I don’t really want to do this right now.”

 

Rey couldn’t help but smile at the echo of one of their very early conversations.  She was working on one of the systems of the _Millennium Falcon_ on a nameless planet just pushing into the unknown regions.  She was on a scouting mission for the Resistance, but there wasn’t anyone but Chewbacca and R2-D2 around.  They’d finally managed to clear the Porgs from the ship, but they were still finding random nests and piles of feathers all over the place.

 

“I can’t say that it’s high on my priority list either,” she said.

 

“Did my father’s bucket of bolts finally die on you?” Ben asked snidely.

 

Rey deliberately made a few more adjustments to what she was working on and then turned to face him, not caring about the grease she could feel on her face or the fact that her formerly, kind of pristine coveralls were coated in more grime.  “No, we’re still cleaning up from the birds,” she said.  “It’s a bit of a long haul.”

 

“Why am I even here?” Ben asked looking around the dingy corridors of the _Millennium Falcon_.

 

“Your guess is as good as mine.  I wasn’t particularly thinking of you except for using Kylo Ren as a replacement curse word since Chewie complained my vocabulary was lacking,” Rey said. “Want to go outside for some fresh air since you’re here?  I’ve been working on this section for the past six hours or were you busy with something else?”

 

“Where are you?” Ben asked.

 

“Somewhere far away from the Resistance I can assure you,” Rey said.  “It’s a secret mission.  Big secret, can’t tell anyone.”

 

Ben had a look on his face like he knew he was missing a joke of some form and was irritated that he wasn’t getting it.

 

“Have you thought about it any?” Rey asked as they stepped out into the bright moonlight of the four moons that shone in the star-studded skies of the pristine world.

 

She shrugged out of the top of the coveralls, revealing her usual off-white top beneath though without her usual arm covers.

 

“Thought about what?” Ben asked, he seemed to follow her almost helplessly as she made her way through the combinations of hardy conifers and deciduous trees that made up the environment.

 

“About what is missing,” Rey said as if was the most basic thing in the world.

 

“Well, as Supreme Leader…” Ben began.

 

Rey gave him an amused look.  “You’ve been avoiding it,” she said simply. 

 

“How are things going with the lightsaber?” he fired back.

 

“I’ve almost figured out how to get the casing put back together,” Rey said.  “The crystal…the crystal isn’t being as cooperative.  I’m probably going to have Artoo see if he has any records of places we can go to acquire new crystals that wouldn’t put us directly into First Order hands.”

 

“If you came to me I could give you one,” Ben said.

 

“At what price?” Rey asked.

 

“Just you,” Ben said.

 

Rey shook her head.

 

Ben’s breath expelled in frustration and he reached out and gripped her shoulder turning her to face him.

 

Rey’s breath caught at the raw pain in the depths of his eyes. “Rey…” he began, something lit up his face for a moment.

 

Then he was gone.


	4. Night Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happened to Kylo and what's going to happen next? (Kylo/Ben PoV)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Plot snuck in on me--well sorta anyway.
> 
> This one jumped from a Force Skype Conversation to a battle. I am liking some of these ideas so may work it into my official -big- fan fic that is still being completely put together.
> 
> As usual, it's not beta'd so it's entirely possible I missed a couple grammatical things as well as some punctuation, but I think I caught them all ^_^

Kylo Ren’s so drugged when she appears, he’s not sure if it’s another dream to turn into a nightmare or a true connection—there’ve been many of those dreams over the past…four days, he thinks…

 

“Ben, what happened?” Rey’s voice echoed in the clouded recesses of his mind and he wonders if she might actually be connected.

 

“The Resistance,” he spat.

 

Horror rounds those beautiful hazel eyes, but he can only vaguely feel the sense of satisfaction of showing her that her so-called ‘good guys’ were capable of things just as horrible as the First Order.

 

“No,” Rey whispered.  “They would never—”

 

He thinks a bitter smile curves his lips, the vague pain registering from the split in his lip says he might be.  “They call themselves the Haysian Commission.”

 

“They’re not one of us.”

 

Rey’s voice is hard in ways that Kylo hasn’t heard since she declared him a monster in their first interactions.  He tries to focus on her eyes and notices they have the same hard, flinty look in them as they did in the forest of Starkiller Base.  “They call themselves Resistance,” he said.

 

“They’re an extremist group that violates every rule of conduct the general set down,” Rey said.  “We’ve been trying to find them before they hurt the Resistance more than they already have.”

 

 “And what will you do when you find them?  Destroy them?” Kylo asked.  “Sounds like something the First Order would do.”

 

“No we’d…” Rey trailed off.

 

“Capture them, put them on trial, watch as they escape to start all over again?” Kylo suggested.

 

“They wouldn’t escape,” Rey said firmly.

 

“Are you sure?”

 

Kylo knew he was taunting her, but he couldn’t help it.

 

“I’ll rescue you,” Rey said softly.  “I promise.”

 

Kylo shivered, an echo of a distant memory going through his head:

 

_I’ll be home soon Ben.  Promise, just gotta make this last run…_

Kylo shuddered as his father’s voice echoed through his head.  “Don’t bother. I’m right where the Resistance wants me, aren’t I?” he demanded.

 

“I’m not giving up on you yet,” Rey stated softly.  “I’ll be there soon.”

 

“No…don’t…”

 

Rey’s presence was gone before he could finish his plea.  All he could see in the sea of drugs was a flickering image of Rey landing on the planet and dying—or ending up in his same situation, but worse.  The thought of Rey in danger spurred him like nothing else ever could.

 

The drugs running through his system were intended to keep him from using the Force, but they severely underestimated what a desperate Kylo Ren could do.  His anger and, more so, his fear for Rey snapped his connection to the Force back in place and his mind abruptly cleared from the drugs.  The manacles holding his wrists clicked and dropped away slamming against the wall of the cell with a crash that probably echoed up whatever was serving as their prison.  They’d come running quickly, but in this moment of sheer adrenaline all the injuries Kylo sustained, all the pain he was used to ignoring (except to feed into his connection with the Force), and all the drugs in his head faded away.

 

He wouldn’t let them get Rey.

 

Rey was his.

 

Dark brown eyes blazed when the first soldier came into sight, the laser at their waist slipping through the energy bars and into Kylo's hand then he took aim and fired.  The soldier reeled back and was replaced by another and another until there were five guards down in front of Kylo’s cell.  The sixth guard arrived and found an invisible hand wrapped around their throat.  All of Kylo’s rage and anger guided his strikes to the guard’s mind.  “You WILL open this cell.  NOW.”

 

The guard dropped and moved to the control panel.  “I will open this cell now.”

 

The beams that made up the bars vanished and Kylo strode out of the cell.  As a reward for following his orders, Kylo merely knocked the guard out like he had with Rey on Takodana and let them fall to the ground.  This was his mercy, if the guard came at him again, he would die.

 

An alarm screamed through the camp as Kylo emerged from the prison block and he saw his father’s rusty bucket of bolts streak through the air.  He could feel Rey like he could feel some of the pain seeping through his adrenaline haze in his head.  Before he could do more than turn in the direction the _Falcon_ was heading he was set upon by a small group of troops.  He then was too busy catching and redirecting laser fire with the Force to actually realize what was going on until he heard a shout and a soldier he hadn’t seen slammed into one of the buildings and the familiar hum of a lightsaber sounded.

 

Kylo’s eyes flashed to Rey and stared in shock at the golden blade that emerged from a larger than normal hilt.  The blade cut through soldiers moving in on them and Kylo found himself back to back with her.  He ignored how right it felt as they began to move in tandem.

 

“Use this,” Rey commanded him.

 

Kylo automatically took the item from her hand and ignited the lightsaber, a long white blade emerged and crackled like his saber, he could feel the instability in the casing and the sparks settled on his bare hands burning through layers, but he ignored that pain too as he used the blade to deflect a blaster bolt.

 

Once they were working together it didn’t take long for them to beat back their attackers.  Rey grabbed his wrist.  “This way,” she ordered him.

 

“Where are we going?” Kylo demanded.

 

“Does it matter right now?” Rey asked.  “We’ve got to get out of here.”

 

Kylo opened his mouth to respond and then he was hit by a massive circular pulse wave that sent pain screaming through every nerve and blew away the adrenaline haze.  He curled on the ground as pain pulsed through him.

 

“The general will be pleased.”

 

With effort he turned his head and saw a tall blond woman with a chrome-plated blaster smirking at them.  Half her body was covered in burn scars, but the other was untouched.  The blaster was dropped to the ground and an electrostaff extended in front of her as the woman he knew all too well moved forward.  Kylo watched death stalking towards him and froze as a slim shape stepped in front of him and a second golden blade extended from the other half of the blade in Rey’s hand.  “Rey…” he began.

 

“What are _you_ doing here?” Rey hissed.

 

“Lovely setup, don’t you think?” the woman drawled, the staff whirling in her grip as she approached.  “I not only take out Ren and secure the throne for the First Order; I also get to take out the so-called Last Jedi.  The Resistance will shatter when they hear some of their own destroyed their last hope.”

 

“Phasma…” Kylo began, “you…”

 

“How else do you think they caught you?” Phasma snorted.  “Hux played you all along and I was more than willing to help.  Now it is time to die.”

 

“Not today,” Rey stated flatly.  “Ben, as soon as you can run. I’ve got this.”

 

“Oh ho, do you now?” Phasma smirked.  “Force or not a little pipsqueak like you doesn’t stand a chance.”

 

“I’m not going to leave you alone to face this,” Kylo gritted out, trying to force the pain back so he could grasp the Force again.

 

Rey ignored him and launched herself at Phasma, her first instinct was still to fight hand-to-hand Kylo noted in a distant part of his mind.  She used the Force only to guide her movements and every now and then when Phasma got a little too close to him she forced her back.

 

The sound of something huge emerging overhead caught both Rey and Ben’s attention and Phasma’s eyes rounded as she recognized the massive _Dreadnaught_ overhead.  The guns were warming up and the woman bolted into the woods leaving Rey and Ben behind.  There was a roar and a familiar form emerged from the woods.  The Wookiee raced across the ground and scooped Kylo up and shouted something in Shyriiwook. 

 

Rey nodded and Kylo lost consciousness.

 

When next he awakened he was in unfamiliar quarters watching reflections of stars rolling across the surface.

 

“Where am I?” he rasped.

 

“Does the physical location really matter so much?”

 

His head snapped in the direction of the speaker and he saw Rey sitting on a couch watching him with intent hazel eyes as she put the cloth she was using to wipe down the lightsaber hilt in her hand.

 

A smile flickered across her face as she continued with the line from the interrogation room where they first clashed.  “You’re my guest,” she said.

 

That was where the reenactment ended.  Kylo noted that he was in an oddly comfortable bed and outside he could hear something like songbirds or similar?  Not a computer recreation of them, but real, actual songbirds.

 

“We’re not on a ship,” he noted.

 

He attempted to sit up and every muscle in his body protested—violently.

 

“The medic said you’ll need some more time to fully recover,” Rey said standing up.

 

She moved across the floor and settled on the bed next to him, just out of reach of his aching muscles.  “We’re not on a Resistance base if that’s what you’re worried about,” Rey continued.  “It’s a quiet planet several light years into the Unknown Regions.  It’s not on Resistance or First Order maps.”

 

“What are you doing, Rey?” he asked softly.

 

“Protecting you,” she said simply.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not very good at battle scenes and I probably need to invest in Phasma to read (after I read Aftermath: Empire's End, The Last Shot, and Bloodlines anyway) if I'm going to do more with it.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading ^_^


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